Mortar Platoon Cadre Directing Staff and Students
Mortar Platoon by Cpl Scott Franks
OC: Capt M L Hickmott
The Mortar Platoon finished their rôle as part of the Land Warfare Battle Group with a sigh of relief. Enjoyable as some of the exercises were, no one was going to miss the exhausting lifestyle of having to complete several RAAT tasks at once or in quick succession. The move to our new home in Germany represented a chance to train as a formed entity in a battlegroup context once more.
Arrival in Germany gave everyone a chance to take a look at the Platoon and it seemed that there was a sea of new faces which had crept in without our noticing whilst we had been busy on Salisbury Plain. This meant that some of the old faces had gone on to pastures new and we wish them the best of luck. However, there was no time to waste reflecting on how the Platoon had changed. Our new vehicle fleet was made up of Bulldog instead of the old FV432 variants we were used to and we had to focus on getting these new faces qualified to drive them. As well as new Private soldiers, there was a new Platoon Commander, fresh off his course and who needed to be taught the slight differences between the Mortar Platoon and anything else he had encountered before - essentially that we play harder than everyone else. Colour Sergeant Flint was set to take over as 2ic and had to be sent on his course and the MFC Bravos of yesterday had to go back to Warminster and become the MFC Alphas of tomorrow. Cpl Massey attended SCBC and came back with a top third pass. At the same time, several of the Platoon’s senior soldiers were undergoing the
The Mercian Eagle Mortar Platoon Bedding In
Battalion JNCO cadre which finished just before Christmas. Ptes Ganderton, Cooper, Woodley, Murphy and Tuckey all passed and Pte Ward was finally promoted having completed a JNCO course previously.
As the New Year arrived, Pte Woodley (now LCpl) and LCpl Chambers set off for Warminster for their MFC course (they passed) and Cpl Massey, having only just finished Brecon, went off and completed his MFC Alpha course. In the meantime, Sgt Woolley beat everyone else to it and got himself trawled to go Afghanistan. Also starting in January was the Basic Mortar Cadre that was much needed as almost all of the Ptes in the Platoon were new and had needed to earn the badge for their number two dress and become proper Mortar Men. The best thing about this was the live firing package at the end when we fired an entire year’s worth of ammo allocation in just three days. This amounted to more than 700 HE rounds; there used to be a
small hill on the range we were given….. It’s gone now.
Our final accomplishment was to concentrate on our mechanised drills in preparation for a double deployment to BATUS. As SCOTS DG is our sister Battlegroup, the Mortar Platoon is supporting both Prairie Thunder 1 and 2. Twice the exercise means twice the adventurous training and twice the R&R: we can’t wait.
Mortar Platoon Kids at play
Mortar Platoon Drills in the snow October 2010 69
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